Some memory devices, such as TrustedFlash™ memory devices from SanDisk Corporation, need to know the time in order to perform time-based operations, such as digital rights management (DRM) license validation. Because of the security issues involved in such operations, the memory device may not be able to trust a host device to provide the correct time. While the memory device may be able to obtain the correct time from a trusted component in a network, the host device hosting the memory device may not be connected to the network at the time the memory device needs to know the time. The memory device can be designed to measure its active time, but a time estimate generated from measured active time will not be a true measure of the actual time if the memory device does not continuously measure active time (e.g., if the memory device was powered down after the measurement started). Accordingly, a time estimate generated from the measured active time really only indicates a lower limit of what the actual time could be, and such a time estimate may not provide the accuracy that is desired in certain time-based operations. While a memory device can be equipped with a battery-backed-up clock to continuously keep track of time even when the memory device is inactive, such a clock may add cost to the memory device.